Harbour Tavern — Restaurant in England

THIS PLACE HAS CHANGED!!

What has happened?!?! Has there been a change in management in recent times?

This place was the "GO TO" each summer we visit this beautiful harbour town. There was always a queue on the street to wait and that was always OK, we didbt mind, because everything used to be absolutely outstanding.

Excited for this summers return trip with the family, we raced down the hill from the car park to find that there was no queue outside (bit odd on a bank holiday weekend, this place had them queing outside the street year on year) furthermore, some random DJ advertisement on the window outside and I instantly thought "What's happened?!?"

Upon entering the premises we found no sign of the familiar friendly staff waiting to greet us and sit us down. Furthermore there was no sign to say "sorry this isn't table service anymore" either, just a cold stare from a dark haired girl behind the bar and a point to a table in the window.

My heart sank, I knew this place had changed and it was starting to feel like I had never been here before.

After 10 minutes of waiting, I went to the bar to ask "is it order at the bar now?" The lady nodded and pointed to some menus on a nearby dresser. Why not have a sign to tell the returning customers that service has now changed? Think of the customer journey.

The food was higher in price which was to be expected in this cost of living crisis, but if the quality was the same then we wouldn't mind. We are certainly all for supporting small businesses.

The fish and chips used to be crispy, light and all the batter used to be gluten free, no matter who ordered. It was the standard recipe. The peas used to be salty and minted accompanied by the most delicious creamy homemade tarter sauce. This is what had us returning year after year!!! Well sadly it's nothing like this now. 😢 It's a cheap HEINZ sachet of sauce, a small dollop of some bland mushy peas and the chips tasted like they had been reheated (starchy!!)

I was in despair, what had happened to our beloved holiday eating spot!! 😢 The GF fish batter was the soggy, pale, bicarbonate of soda rubbish you get anywhere, it's cheap and nasty. Where has that secret recipe gone?? This place used to be a cut above the rest, a reason to travel into Mevagissey, and now ... it's... just an average place to eat. The quality is on par with a weatherspoons but more expensive.

Absolutely gutted, it must have changed hands, what a huge shame!! Our family tradition of eating here is now over and we are on the hunt for a new place.

Its just not the same. I agree with the other customers statement that previous reviews are no longer valid, they are of the old days, the old management and old team.

New management need to work this out or they will certainly keep losing customers.

EDIT IN RESPONSE:

1. No one came to check on us or how the food was, the establishment as you say is "bar service"

2. We did ask for fresh tarter sauce and was told its no longer part of the menu.

3. If you see our previous reviews you will know we have eaten at many a 5* restaurant and your chef certainly isnt at this standard at all. Perhaps some porkie pies on the CV ???

4. it does unfortunately look like that across Google, trip advisor and more the negative reviews are starting to stack up. We can't...

Can’t tell you about the food, as we left before finishing the order due to how rude and unhelpful the waitress was. I was told not to ask if the food had allergens in it because at the end of ordering for the table she’d ask me, for cross-contamination reasons. Cool, that’s a good thing, but I need to ask first to actually order the food. Then having asked if the meat on the pizza was spicy (kids with us) we were told ‘I don’t know I haven’t eaten it’ and when I asked if she could ask in the kitchen the response was ‘they won’t have eaten it either’. I asked if they could put it on the side - no. I ignored this and ordered it without the meat. I asked if they could put it on two plates because it’s an adult pizza for two children (allergy friendly choices were limited), and was told ‘no you’d have to do that’. Odd but ok. Then we had a thing over the bruschetta (which is one piece about 4 inches long for 7 pounds) because having been told it’s one piece, we got so much attitude on trying to understand the portion sizes. We were patronisingly told it was tapas style plates. Obviously we knew it was tapas because we were putting through lots of small plates and I said that I just needed to know so we could order more if it wasn’t enough. But she treated us as if we were some sort of hassle for wanting to order enough food. Carried on putting through what would have been a large spread for the adults, but while we were talking about how rude the waitress was and how bad her attitude to customers was (and at this point I should say I’m known for my patience, plus I was once a waitress too so On principle I would never be rude) she came back to explain the vegan pizza base was made externally and said she had to tell me that. Then came so much back and forth with such attitude, because I wanted to know if the box said ‘may contain’ or ‘made in a factory that handles’ and I explained it’s an anaphylactic allergic reaction, so need to know. She couldn’t or wouldn’t answer the question. I know it’s specific but it’s a need to know thing, she says ‘well we handle it (the allergens’ and I pointed out that while I trust the kitchen staff, I have to make that decision about off-site premises too, it’s my child’s life so I just need to know what the box says. After so much back and forth (I’m not allowed to see the box, she says there’s no problem, I say well you’ve told me it’s got a warning of some sort, so I just need to know what it is, so I can make the call) and such terrible customer service she eventually goes ‘I’ll go take a photo of the box’ but by this point my blood was boiling and I went up to another lady who seemed very nice, and quickly cancelled the whole thing. I was absolutely appalled at such awful service, and being challenged for such basic things. Have never had to do this before in my life.

So in short, that girl probably shouldn’t work in hospitality, and should have a refresher on any allergy training. Real shame we didn’t get to try the food as the menu looked promising. Place looked nice enough from the inside, seemed comfortable and must have been quick service because we queued outside behind 4/5 other parties and got in...

In response to owner

Whilst I appreciate your response, your staff are not being transparent with you. I did inform them I cannot have cheese, if my pizza was cooked in a separate pizza oven there wouldn’t have been cheese on my pizza whatsoever so clearly it either wasn’t cooked separately or the correct cross contamination prevention wasn’t followed. The head chef DID come and speak to us both at the bar because originally my wife ordered the crab pizza that’s advertised outside your establishment on the menu by the door and we paid for it to then be told by the head chef it had changed to a mussel & cockle pizza due to your crab not “selling well” so I had to get the difference refunded when my wife had to then order a different pizza. Your chef also asked about my cheeseless pizza and I confirmed I cannot have cheese.. so YES your staff did speak to me about it, including 2 female bar staff who personally told the kitchen about me not being able to have cheese on my pizza so I’m not sure why you’re staying they didn’t.. If you had responded sooner I’d have happily come into the restaurant for a face to face chat about the situation but unfortunately you’ve responded the day after I left as I do not live in Mevagissey. My view still stays the same, please be more careful with allergens, when someone states they cannot have it there’s a good reason.

I asked for a bbq pizza without cheese as I have an allergy. My Pizza first arrived with no onions so just asked for a handful to be put on and didn’t notice that there was melted cheese around the top few slices and some on the bottom.. got back to my place where I’m staying and took a bite only to end up pulling it straight out of my mouth as there was cheese on it. Absolutely ridiculous that someone can mess up that badly and not even check it to make sure you didn’t put cheese on it. I took it back and explained and got a “sorry about that” with my my refund for the pizza, at least I got my refund I guess but still… the kitchen was told and clearly someone was annoyed. If you have allergies check your food thoroughly before you eat it or you may end up with an allergic reaction.

As for the kitchen, I’d recommend you have allergy training and understand how important it actually is to someone who’s allergic and if you can’t guarantee it then don’t serve it. But check your food before you send it to customers with allergies.

We had plans to eat here next week, unfortunately now we won’t be returning. Now I’ve been left with no dinner this evening because I was looking forward to pizza…

My wife did get take away pizza and didn’t have...